Kerry King Says He Was Talked Into His Sum 41 Collaboration Because of His Beastie Boys Collaboration

Former Slayer guitarist, newly solo artist, and all-around grumpy dude Kerry King has made a number of guest appearances on other people’s albums over the years. Usually they were guest spots that made perfect sense like on Pantera’s track “Goddamn Electric” in 2000 and Hatebreed’s “Final Prayer” in 2001. But the two strangest appearances might be his two guest spots on the Beastie Boys’ album Licensed to Ill and his one guest appearance on the Sum 41 track “What We’re All About.” Apparently, those two appearances are oddly connected.

In an interview with Canada’s Border City Rock Talk (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), King talked about these two guest appearances and explained how both of them came about:

“The simplicity of it is what’s funny about it. We [SLAYER] were doing what became the ‘Reign In Blood’ album and the [BEASTIE BOYS] were doing ‘Licensed To Ill’ in the same studio, like down the hall from each other. And [producer] Rick Rubin was doing both projects. So they needed a lead on that particular song, ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’. So I thought about it, and I went, ‘Yeah, why not? I can use a couple hundred bucks.’ I certainly wasn’t well to do back then. So, that’s what I did. I went in there and I did it. And in hindsight, I wish I didn’t get paid. I wish I took a quarter point or something, ’cause now I would be a rich man. [Laughs]”

Then, regarding the Sum 41 collaboration, King explained that that came about because of the Beastie Boys collaboration:

“It’s funny. I just ran into [SUM 41] in Europe a couple of times. They were on the same festivals with us, and I hadn’t seen them in a long, long time. So they made a way to come out and say ‘hey’, which I was happy about, ’cause I hadn’t seen them forever.

“How that one happened — I remember I turned it down for months and months and months,” he explained. “I’m, like, ‘My fans won’t get it. My fans won’t get it. My fans won’t get it.’ Then the guy from the record label — here’s another funny story, kind of full circle of what we were talking about — he comes up to me and he says, ‘Well, you did the BEASTIE BOYS.’ And I went, ‘Motherfucker!’ [Laughs] So I’m, like, ‘You’re right.’ So I did it.”

So King ended up doing two unlikely guest appearances and, while they may have led to some griping amongst fans at the time, it’s not like his reputation took a major hit from it. In the end, you gotta fight for your right to have fun sometimes.